Some Canadians still divided the day after Liberal election win

Federal election results show Canadians are split on their vision for the future.

The day after a difficult defeat, signs for the Conservative candidate in Cape Breton-Canso-Antigonish were packed up along the main street in Baddeck, N.S., on Tuesday.

“I think close results are sometimes a good thing, and I think we are very much united,” said Baddeck resident Judy MacDonald when asked what she thought of the result in her riding.

While a relatively narrow victory for Liberal incumbent Jaime Battiste over Conservative Allan MacMaster in Cape Breton-Canso-Antigonish may indicate a votership that would have been happy with a win by either candidate, new Prime Minister-elect Mark Carney seemed keenly aware of any division that remains during Monday night’s victory speech.

“While many have chosen to place your trust in me, trust in the Liberal Party, millions of our fellow citizens preferred a different outcome,” Carney told the crowd of assembled supporters.

While Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre promised cooperation from his party during his concession remarks, one couple visiting Baddeck from British Columbia said that at times, this campaign was a nasty one.

“Because boy-oh-boy, it was pretty ugly before the election,” said Stephanie Mundeling. “About like, ‘Oh, you’re Liberal, get out of my house’, or whatever.”

“Together, the whole idea is to make sure that our economic future is better than what Trump wants,” added her husband, Jack Orchard.

Cape Breton University political scientist, Tom Urbaniak, said this election revealed what he calls ‘fault lines’ in our country and some of its demographics.

He added that one of Carney’s biggest challenges to begin his term will be to navigate the strong differences in opinion that remain about the country’s future.

“There are divisions based on age and gender and class, and that’s going to require a lot of finesse on the part of the Prime Minister especially - to try to heal these divisions, and not to stoke them,” Urbaniak said.

Urbaniak added Carney is off to a good start, having said what he felt were the right things during his victory speech.

He also stressed the Prime Minister will have to be mindful of the parts of the country that did not support the Liberal Party, particularly when the honeymoon phase comes to an end.

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